10 
President’ s Address. 
buried the stores at tlie foot of a tree, and put a notice 
with tlie word “ dig ” upon it, and the better to conceal 
the cache from the natives, he lit a fire over the spot, 
and then tied some camels during the last night over the 
place, so that by their soiling and trampling the ashes into 
the earth all traces of the excavation might be obliterated. 
And then, on the the morning of the 21st April, he left tlie 
depot — on the very day on which Burke and Wills and King 
returned to it. The Explorers opened the cache and found 
the ample supply of food, and, as we now know from the 
survivor, King, they debated about following the party who 
had only a few hours before left the spot, and which, as a 
first day’s journey is generally short, would be encamped . so 
near that the night would probably be sufficient to come up 
with them. But, unfortunately, it was decided not to 
follow, but to remain to recruit their strength ; and when 
sufficiently recovered to undertake a journey, they deter- 
mined, instead of following the obvious track home, to 
endeavour to find a new one into South Australia, in which 
they failed, although without knowing it they had actually 
reached within about sixty miles of the station at Mount 
Hopeless, when they exhausted their strength and provi- 
sions by returning again to Cooper’s Creek. The most 
inconceivable part of this unlucky series, of mischances has 
yet to be told, and has never been clearly set down. 
Before leaving Cooper’s Creek for Mount Hopeless, the 
explorers buried their papers, &c., in the cache from which 
they took the food, and then with fatal accuracy restored 
everything above to the exact condition in which they found 
it — they not only lighted their fires over the disturbed 
ground, as Brahe had done, but actually picketed their 
camels to the tree, to trample in the ashes and leave their 
soil and footmarks exactly as he had left them, and finally, 
by an almost incredible mischance, they neither defaced nor 
altered Brahe’s notice on the tree, nor added any note or 
mark or sign of their own to show that they had been there. 
And this cost our heroes their lives. For while they were 
on their fruitless journey towards South Australia, Mr. 
Brahe, having joined Mr. Wright, returned with him to 
Cooper’s Creek on the 8th of May, so as to get a further chance 
of seeing if the party had returned from Carpentaria, but 
they found everything exactly as Brahd described to Wright 
his having left it ; and the latter who was an axcellent bush- 
